Blue Totoro

Here's the medium sized Totoro. I made his bottom too pointy (should have made more increases at the beginning to give him a flatter bottom), so now I think I'll knit on some little feet. Two feet will balance out his tail so he can stand upright. I've got the body shape a lot better on this one.

And, last night I tried to make a soot sprite with a Lion Brand Pompom Maker I bought at Hancock's this week. Soot sprites are little black spirits that live in empty houses, that only children can see.

So, basically I had some black yarn sitting there, and the kids and I were watching the movie, so I thought I would make a black pompom and try out the new pompom maker. I couldn't even make ONE pompom without getting totally frustrated. Since you are wrapping around two rings held together, you have to let go of your yarn on every turn and pass an end through the ring. This means you have to cut a length of yarn first and how do you know how much you will need before you start wrapping? Bleah.

So I went and grabbed a wine bottle and made a pompom around its neck. It doesn't come out even that way, but you can shape it up with some scissors. Back in the fall I was making some big pompoms for Santa Hats (ha, I just typed Satan accidentally) and I used ds's Star Wars Light Saber. It had a notch that you could put your scissors into to cut it.

On Wednesday I came down with stomach flu, on top of a still lingering head cold. Like a fool, I tried to go walk that day, only to make it half way round my usual path, then to head home and go to bed. I guess that's because when I commit to something, by God, I'm gonna do it. Plus last week I missed a walk due to having a cold.

It's nice having school aged kids who can fend for themselves. Dd was a good helper for me, keeping the younger one occupied and fixing lunches for the next day. Ds Lysol-ed the door knobs for me. Today I'm waiting by the phone to see if one of them comes down with it at school. Maybe we're in the clear.